The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay 6V Horns with 12V?

What kind of voltage reducer will work to run a pair of 6V horns on a 12V system? Can someone recommend a source? Thanks! :confused:

Get this checked out by someone else but I think some folks use the 6-v horns in a 12-v system without a voltage reducer and just don't lay on the horn button. They take a lot of juice and would take a hefty voltage reducer. I think I saw something on this on the Jim Carter web page.

Jimfred, you are better off installing 12 V horns off of anything made after 1954. I like to use a matched pair of Hi/Low horns which were installed on,Chevs,Pontiacs, Buicks & Cadillacs from the mid to late 50's.

Use the 6v horns without a reducer. They sound twice as loud as the 12v. We used to change late 50's horns to the 6v, to get the extra noise. They lasted for years, but we didn't blow them long blasts.

I have done the same thing. Eventually running 12 Volts through the 6 Volt horns turns the contact points into something resembling burnt toast.

You say you have TWO six volt horns? Put them in series -- 2 sixes is twelve. (do not put them in parallel as all of the worst comments above will apply) cheers

Ummmm, how do you put horns in series?
:confused:

Yeah, that's the tricky part as the horns ground through their mounts. Mount one of the horns using some sort of non conductive material so that it will not ground. Run your horn lead to the terminal of the ungrounded horn. Run a wire from the body of the ungrounded horn to the terminal of the second (grounded) horn. That should do it.

Be careful to use non-conductive screws too. Or -- perhaps you could mount the horn to a non-conductive backing like a block of wood and then mount that block of wood to the metal with separate screws. Whatever you do, you don't want the horn grounded to the body/frame. jerry

I've gotta pair of 6 volt horns in my 86 Suburban that I've had for over 10 years in about as many cars.......... never a problem and certainly LOUD!!!!!!!!!!

Impress yer friends and soil their shorts!

I also have a pair in my '97 Saturn....... gets noticed.

Most all horns will do fine on 12 volt unless you live in a bad neighborhood and experience a lot of road rage and are honking your horns constantly.

If you want to reduce the voltage to the horns and not use a reducer, you can use high resistance primary wire like **** used in their ignitions during the early 1960's. The resistance wire took the place of the ballast resistor. The spool itself will say how much resistance per foot the wire has, but usually a 24" to 27" inch piece will lower voltage down to the 7.5 voltage range.

The local full line auto parts store should have high resistance primary ignition wire in stock. By the way the military used this same trick for gauges in helicopters during the Vietnam era. The electrical systems were all 24 volt but the gauges in the dash were 12-volt. Hence the loops of wire hanging off the back of the dash gauges.

Many well meaning mechanic types assumed that the wire was just extra wire hanging there so they did somene a favor and removed all of the excess wire and replaced it with just a short piece of primary wire. Well...you can guess the rest....Thanks, Randy

Another thought from the Peanut Gallary would be to use a dash light dimmer switch. Don't know of a US example, but late 1980 240 series Volvo's use a variable dimmer switch that gives a voltage range of less than 4 to over 10. A very small switch that would be easy to mount in or under dash.

How about mounting the second horn to the first horn? That way the second one is in series with the first one. Just don't have it touch direct ground at all.

You can really take the loud horn thing to far. If you want a super loud horn and dont want to mess with 6 volt 12 volt problems. Use an air horn from semi-truck. You will need a compressor of some sorts to drive it,but it will blast like a mutha. Even better yet,get a air horn from a train. Maybe even one of those horns off a cruise ship. Now that'l get everyones attention

www.big-horn.com

The site wasn't up when I checked it this morning, but should (hopefully) be up sometime soon. I met the people who own this beast on my Christmas vacation last year, but they didn't have the Big Horn with them. I bet people would get out of your way if you touched off those ship horns...

I realize that this is an old thread, but I'm about to encounter the same condition . . . dropping a 6v horn into a 12v truck.

What about putting a big old resistor from Radio Shack in the line coming in to the horn to drop the voltage to 6v? Would something like that work?

Anybody know how much current one of these horns draws? Or where I can get some electrical specifications on horns?

What about putting a big old resistor from Radio Shack in the line coming in to the horn to drop the voltage to 6v? Would something like that work?

Anybody know how much current one of these horns draws? Or where I can get some electrical specifications on horns?[/QB][/QUOTE]

howziit guys!

not meant as a putdown...JMO, it's better to GET A METER! :rolleyes:

measure the current value of any electrical doo-hickey in question, so you don't electrocute that rare, precious, hard-to-replace item.

that being said, disconnect the hot lead from the horn, connect the $10 meter(ammeter scale) between the hot and the connection you pulled it off.

put on your earplugs, watch the meter, and have your sadistic buddy honk the horn! :mad:

WRITE THE READING DOWN...as soon as you read it(you DON'T want to do this "horn test" often. LOL!

come back and post your readings; someone here can help you with the final calculations, in finding exactly what resistor(voltage reducer) you'll need.

as Josiah reminded me, you don't want to make a mistake, and have a resistor the size of a banana! ROTFL! :p :p :p

personally...i'd run an ah-ooogah horn, or a VW bug horn, or the original 6V horn, but that's JMO.